The invention relates to a material store for the through transport of a length of textile material between successive treatment machines, according to the preamble to claim 1.
The finishing of lengths of textile material should be carried out as much as possible without interruptions. In order to produce constant material quality. If, for example, a first section of a length of textile material which has been treated in any way is then to be further treated in a so-called stentering frame, especially dried and/or fixed, and immediately thereafter a similar section (same batch) is to be treated in exactly the same manner, then it is usual to draw the beginning of the immediately following section of the length of material near to the end of the first section. If for example the stentering frame were to be stopped for this purpose in order to bring the next section of the length of material near to the one which has just been finished, this would mean that the standing section of material just located in the stentering frame is subjected to a longer period of heat treatment, and therefore has a different quality. In order to avoid such periods of idleness during the finishing process material stores are used.
Various constructions of material stores for the transport of lengths of textile material, particularly those which are guided widthways, are known in the art.
One known construction uses a so-called roller material store in which upper and lower rows of rollers are provided and the length of material is guided to and fro a number of times over a plurality of rollers, the distance between the upper and lower rows of rollers being variable.
Such a material store has significant disadvantages. First of all, because of the large number of rollers and the movable mounting thereof, the expenditure on construction is considerable. Moreover, care must be taken to ensure that the successive rollers do not have too small a diameter and with a view to simple feeding in of the length of material the rollers must be a sufficiently large distance apart, this distance generally being greater than their diameter. This results in very large dimensions for a roller material store, and there is not generally sufficient space for this in textile finishing plant.
It is also known in the art to use a material store of the type set out in the introduction in the farm of a socalled J box, in which the two inner and outer side plates are bent in the shape of a J, arranged a sufficiently large distance apart and connected to one another by two J-shaped side walls. In this way the J box material store has a relatively high vertical shaft for delivery of the length of material, a turn-round section adjoining the lower end of this shaft and if require a short extraction shaft which is generally connected to the turn-round section and runs upwards at an angle. As in the roller material store, this J box material store is also filled with material, the material being fed into the vertical delivery shaft at an increased delivery speed (fast running). The length of material slips downwards through the delivery shaft and can be removed from the curved turn-round section or from the adjoining extraction shaft and delivered to the next treatment machine (e.g. stentering frame).
However, because of its design and construction this known J box material store cannot be completely emptied, since otherwise the length of material would slide along the plates resulting in damage to the finished length of material.
For certain types of material it is important that they are not stored for long in folded form since otherwise there is a danger of permanent fold marks. Therefore these types of material must be introduced into the aforementioed material store in such a way that they are only stored there during the relatively short material batch changing process; then they must be removed from the store immediately so that they can run fold-free through this material store in normal operation.
The object of the invention, therefore, is to make further developments to a material store of the type comprising a storage vessel with a substantially upright delivery shaft, a turn-round section connected directly to the lower end of the delivery shaft, an extraction shaft connected to the turn-round section opposite the delivery shaft, and transport arrangements arranged above the delivery shaft and the extraction shaft to delivery and remove the length of material in such a way that with a relatively simple and compact construction it is ensured that a length of textile material is guided through gently and reliably and if required there is a sufficient storage capacity at least in the region of the delivery shaft.